By ANDREW POWELL Published: March 6, 2015 MUNICH — Julian Rachlin’s ebullient, craggy, not so lyrical reading of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto held listeners in rapt attention Feb. 17 here at the Gasteig. His tone, rich and glowing, illuminated this view of the essentially blissful score (1878), as did the occasional wabi-sabi rasp or squeal, and […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: February 24, 2015 MUNICH — Fourteen months ago irate journalists confronted Valery Gergiev at a news conference here amid his preparations for a Stravinsky program with the Munich Philharmonic. The confrontation wasn’t over music, rather politics, but it did lead to questions for the orchestra’s management about his hours and pay, […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: February 14, 2015 MUNICH — After four straight days on the road, the Russian National Orchestra looked decidedly bushed for its Jan. 26 MünchenMusik concert at the Gasteig: not the smartest way to play this demanding city. The all-Tchaikovsky program emerged tired-sounding, also somewhat stale interpretively, despite conductor Mikhail Pletnev’s manifest […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: January 25, 2015 MUNICH — Although it brings together skilled players, the Münchner Symphoniker has operated as something of a fifth wheel in the musical scene here. That may be about to change. Kevin John Edusei, the orchestra’s new Bielefeld-born chief conductor, 38, revealed impressive capacities as musician and personality in […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: December 31, 2014 MUNICH — Lëtzebuerg Stad, a.k.a. Luxembourg-Ville, population 100,000, holds a spiffier position these days in the musical firmament. Its orchestra has graduated from the legendary but somewhat seedy aegis of Radio Luxembourg — once a commercial thorn in the national broadcasting sides of France and Britain — and […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: December 13, 2014 MUNICH — Passive accompanist and intent visionary: Gianandrea Noseda managed to be both Nov. 18 in his debut program with the busy Bavarian State Orchestra. For Dvořák’s Violin Concerto (1879) he indulged David Schultheiß in a lyrical reading that generally took its time, ignoring chances in the outer […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: December 11, 2014 MUNICH — Puccini lost even before the curtain went up Nov. 15 on Hans Neuenfels’ conceptual new staging of Manon Lescaut for Bavarian State Opera. Anna Netrebko, its titular star, abandoned the project in quiet disgust, understandably it turned out. Disaster did not follow, but the night and […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: December 11, 2014 MUNICH — Could leaders here finally be moving ahead with a sorely needed new concert hall? Plans and sketches released this morning indicate progress on what has been an excruciatingly slow drive to supplement, or really supplant, the small Herkulessaal and hideous Gasteig venues. As presented by chief […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: November 30, 2014 MUNICH — Along with the whole U.S., this city was on Krystian Zimerman’s “avoid” list. His Bavaria visits would take in Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, any place but the capital, following a harsh review of a performance he gave a dozen or more years ago. Somehow Munich’s musical life […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: November 24, 2014 MUNICH — It took him 39 years, but Maurizio Pollini has now completed his recorded survey of Beethoven sonatas here in the Herkulessaal, where the project began. The final sessions, for the Opp. 31 and 49 pieces, were held in June this year, and the resulting CD set […]
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